Everything that I hate and can crib about ;-)
Yes, it’s been quite long since I’ve posted. Work, a project I have recently taken up and my MBA applications have all contributed to my hardly having any spare time or for that matter, even a social life..
We have a release this month so it should be slightly easier after that.
MBA applications are killer. There is so much to do and with so little time, they are suffering the most. I have to write, on an average ~4.5 essays per University application. But one of the best things about these essays are that they force me to think about myself, my past and what I have done and what I seek to do in the future. They have required quite a bit on introspection (which I have done, sometimes into the wee hours of the night) :)
I have recently sent out questionnaires to people I work with so that I can get feedback about myself and how I am viewed by them.. This should be interesting ;)
Sleep is a precious commodity which I am losing out on big time. I feel I am perpetually in the land of tiredness :(
In other news, I received my Toefl Score which I must say I’m quite surprised with. I got a 114 out of a possible 120 which is on the higher side of my expectations. And I’m not complaining :D
Ok.. I’m done with GMAT. Atleast for the first time. The reason why I have not posted about it yet is because I’m disappointed with both myself and the measly score I could achieve :(
Anyway, I got a 700 but I’m not happy at all with it. Some of the nicer people in my life ( :) ) tried to cheer me up by saying it’s a good score but it’s not, atleast not for me!
I will have to see what to do next after my Toefl (on the 4th of Aug) firstly hoping I don’t screw that up. I will definitely consult someone with more experience, most likely a career/US education counselor to try and put my score in better perspective and what chances I have!
Sigh.. C’est la vie :(
Update: Got my essay score report. Scored a 5 on 6. More than I expected :)
Will have to see if it balances the lower main score.
Looks like my GMAT preps are royally jinxed :(
Why? Let me try to explain.
When I first started preparing, soon after that there was an upcoming function which made me virtually give up all studying for about a forthnight. A month after that there was another function, the temple opening which again caused a break for a fortnight.
Now I am the type who, even after multiple breaks can almost always resume studying right from where I stopped the previous time, even middle of the chapters. So this time I resolved to study much more determinedly and take no breaks no matter what. But it had hardly been 10 days (by days I mean normal days when I have to work as well as rush back home and study for whatever little time I get in the evenings), when I came down with a viral fever. That caused an interruption of another 3-4 days because I usually felt too tired to even sit for half an hour.
Well I recovered from that and had been studying when yesterday I think I have contracted conjunctivitis. Now it’s not confirmed since by the time I could visit my ophthalmologist, it was closing time and she would not take a look at my eye. I’ll be going to the doc and will be hoping that it is _not_ an infection but just a false alarm and if it is, it’s relatively mild and will allow me to study atleast semi-normally!
Bah!
I’ve been extremely busy over the past few weeks. Work, GMAT preparations and other projects. Even study time is quite less and I plan to take a break from work to concentrate on it. And I’m finding it extremely difficult to find time to blog even though I do have a couple of ideas.
One of them is a series of posts about preparing for GMAT and what mistakes I made. Well I guess it’ll have to wait until my GMAT and TOEFL are over. For now, another period of silence ensues :(
I have finally decided to book slots for GMAT and TOEFL. Actually started reading up on the tests and going through the site in my lunch break and looked for available slots in late July or early August. But that caused a mild panic to set it because no slots were available for GMAT in Bangalore for those periods except 24th July which I did not want to take. So decided to check again when I got home.
Now once I got home, I found out that I must first register on the site and registrations take upto two days to get approved. So I cannot book a GMAT slot until friday I guess :( :((
Then I went about reading up on TOEFL and it’s new scheme and decided to book a slot in it, or if like GMAT, atleast register on the site. Thankfully, there I could immediately book a slot. But, if afternoon was mild panic, the evening was “major panic”.
Why? Because I could not locate a single available slot in the months of Late June, July, August and even September, in 10-11 centers spread in 8 cities. This was for the TOEFL CBT. I then surfed back to the slot booking options and selected the TOEFL iBT. (Yeah this is conducted on a computer too, don’t ask me, I didn’t keep the name ;) ) And to my amazement and thankings, a slot was available for the 4th of August which I booked without hesitation.
Now I only need to start studying for the TOEFL ;) :D
Wish me luck :P
Update:
My account has been approved and I’ve now booked a GMAT slot for the 27th of July, but the center is in Hyderabad :(
So the temple is finally a “temple” (before all these functions, it was just a building) and all the ceremonies and functions to deem it thus are finally done with and over. I attended everyday in the evening and took half a day off today to attend the final function.
Well, I cannot honestly say I took part though because of my disinterest. But I enjoyed meeting up with friends who I had not met in over a long while. Almost 5-6 months or maybe more :( That was good fun. Plus quite a few relatives had come down especially for this so met them as well.
Now it’s done with and hopefully I can get back to my regular routine, regular schedule and get some serious studying done..
Ps. My mom has gotten me a tiny silver ring and a chain-bracelet which is supposedly “holy”. Seems I’m building up a collection of jewellery what with 3 rings and the bracelet on my left arm ;) :D
We (as in the Jain community in Bangalore) have recently constructed a new temple. Whenever a new temple is constructed, to ordain the “building” as a temple, a series of Poojas have to be performed. These take about 5-6 days and this will happen starting this weekend on the 3rd. In addition to this, there will also be some other religious preachings and cultural programs to further the knowledge of our religion.
Now, I am an atheist. I do not believe in God or the concept of God. But not having explicitly stated this to my parents who are quite religious and take active participation in the community events and occasions pulled me into the preparations for the ordaining ceremony. The entire ceremony is being managed by my uncle with a lot of other people along with my dad being delegated the smaller details. So yesterday, I was assigned something to do as well.
Though I have never told my parents outright that I am atheist, I have always shown a disinterest in it. But I have to force myself to do all this for their sake which I do not quite welcome! I plan to just grin and bear it for the next few days!
Sigh :(
Thus speaketh